Thursday, October 4, 2012

Bible Study - Times of Trouble and the End of the Age (Matthew 24:1-31)

This week brings us to a portion of Matthew which is very hard to
understand and make sense of. Many Christians would prefer to ignore the
strange and unsettling images in this passage (and its parallels in Mark and
Luke), while others seem to be preoccupied with the end of the world and some
among them believe that they have the precise understanding of how it will
happen. The question I want to ask is: what might be a more healthy response to
what we read here?

Normally I
give reflection questions, yet due to the difficulty of this passage of
scripture I'm going to include a few notes that I hope will be helpful.

First, it’s
important to understand the purpose of Apocalyptic prophecy in Jewish and early
Christian thought. The main goal of Apocalyptic prophecy is not so much to tell
people what the future will look like, but to give persecuted and oppressed
members of God’s people the assurance that God is still in control of history
in spite of present injustice and suffering, and to affirm God’s promise that
he will one day put the world to right and make all things new.

Second,
Apocalyptic prophecy uses a lot of symbols which are deeply rooted earlier
Biblical prophecy. In other words Apocalyptic prophecy is written in code. It
is intentionally hard to understand, in part to keep us humble because the
future belongs to God and it is not our place to know all of what is to come. God
tells us just enough to put our minds at ease and give us courage to face the
present. It was also written in code because it holds a dangerous message – God
is in charge of the world and human tyrants will be judged and condemned. In
times of oppression that kind of message could get people killed, so it’s safer
to speak it and write it in code.

As an example
of this code look at what Jesus says in Matthew 24:15 about what he calls an
‘abomination of desolation’ or ‘desolating sacrilege’. To know what he’s
talking about you need to read Daniel 9:20-27 and also the first chapter of the
apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees (especially 1 Maccabees 1:54). To have any idea
what he is trying to say with this coded language you need to know what earlier
prophets have said, and the larger story of Israel. Or to put it another way,
if Apocalyptic prophecy confuses you don’t feel bad. This is tough stuff and
requires you to know the Bible well to have any hope of understanding it.

Just take
away the key message of this passage which I take this way: Don’t let the
troubles of the present shake your faith – there will be troubles, but God’s
still in charge and will turn these troubles to good in the end. Don’t let
others fool you into thinking they know when the end will come. There will be a
day when Christ appears as the world’s true king, but it will come suddenly and
will be something that cannot be missed. Be faithful to Christ and know that
God will put the world right and make all things new on that day.

Norval Presbyterian

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"Our Fathers laboured and we have entered into their labours. It was their desire to build to the Glory of God a Church that would prove to be a House of Prayer and Sanctuary for the oppressed. This they succeeded in accomplishing. Let us continue to Serve the God of our Fathers and make the extension of the Kingdom of His Son our chief delight and God will continue to bless us, as He has blessed those who have 'entered into rest'."